I never could use finger picks. My fingertips are far too sensitive. It bothers me, also to not be able to feel the string with my fingertips. How can you control the volume of each string separately if you can't feel each string? I know, everyone else does it, no problem.
Final thought. A while back I watched a video of James Taylor talking and showing what he does about picking. He keeps a small tackle box containing stuff to maintain his fingernails. They make fake fingernail media in small sheets. He cuts out the shape he prefers and applies them. He can add as many layers and coat them as much as he wants. Of course, he has all the stuff to shape them as well. I was impressed. He also has his preferences in tuning. For a guy that simply looks as though he sits and plays and sings, he has considered the many aspects that are within his control. As we all do. We know what works for us, mostly. I can and do try other things but typically gravitate back to myself.

I know of a lot of guitar pickers who use fake nails for their picking fingers...I guess that works. My real nails work fine...I just, for some reason, felt the need to cut them off...lol. Like...some adventurous thing I'm doing or something...that's how exciting my life is...lol...cutting the nails off two fingers is like a trip to the moon.

I used to have fake nails for finger picking. My nails were just to thin and had not strength.

i don't paly as much any more - naturally I don't get the fake nail now. But may nails (for whatever reason) are much thicker and stronger now.

I don't know why.

Never been able to get used to using finger and thumb picks.

Probably a lot of preference as far as picks, nails, actual fingers, whatever, depends on how a person's hand is angled while playing, maybe a little bit on what they are playing too. Also...there is the question of how many fingers are involved...i've noticed before that the WWII generation picks, at least folksie home-grown pickers, with one thumb and the index finger. Then along come baby boomers, who added a second finger...lol...without even knowing why or realizing they'd done that. I think I've mentioned here before my seemingly witnessing that phenomenon...I brought it up to baby boomer fingerpicker, actually thumb-picker (in the Merle Travis style, and had grown up knowing Merle Travis and is considered the authentic Merle Travis thumb picker of our time), Eddie Pennington...anyway, I did get to meet him one time and he was very talkative to a stranger, admirer that I was...I told him that I"d seemed to notice baby boomers adding that finger...he admitted he did sneak a second finger into the mix at times, sorta messin' up the Merle Travis idea. I say that, but Eddie doesn't mess up anything...his playing is unbelievable. By the way, Eddie uses fake nails too...but I think, if I remember right, he told me he goes to a nail salon and lets them put the nail (s) on (can't remember if he had that sneaky, illegal second finger nailed up or not) and then he files them as he wants them. So there's one more vote for fake nails...lol.

My nails do seem strong enough to do what is asked of them, but since we've always had to work a lot and I've gardened a lot and at work I had to type quite a bit, and knit and crochet a lot...the two longer nails do get in my way of other activities. There are times they get a nick from whatever I'm doing and then I have to file out the nick or it catches on everything in the world...which of course messes up my playing for a few days until it grows back where it was before it got nicked. Anyway...there's a lot involved I guess...for now...I'm on a new adventure...picking up the ol' picks again and seeing what happens. I don't get much playing time, but so far, they seem very awkward and clumsy...but, as I said before, I spent decades in fingerpicks perfectly happy with them...so...I'll give it some time.

Of course you know this, but it's worth a mention. Hopefully we continue to grow and change as we move through life even as the physical part moves downhill. I think your change is pretty normal. I don't play in the same situations any more and so don't need to do things the way I used to. Also, I'm playing different songs now than I was 5 years ago (revisiting some old tunes and learning new ones), so that changes things too. Anyway, I don't think it's crazy; change is normal

Ha, I can totally geek out on nails, as an ex-classical guitar player! :-D

With the nylon strings, it’s hitting the string with nail and a bit of finger flesh, at a particular angle. And the nails need to be shaped in a certain way…I used to file from underneath, making a smooth rounded slope on left side of nail, and check the tone…then refine each nail shape again and again based on the tone…

If I had a hard time at my lesson I would call it a “bad nail day”, haha. Our entire guitar group would sit around having 20-minute discussions of nails and nail care, haha. ( Never cut your nails right before a lesson or recital, haha- You could go for the string and swipe air instead, whoops! )

Anyway I think metal strings would be rough on nails? Fingerpicks or picks make more sense! And they don’t change length or shape, the way human nails do…

Imagine bowing your fiddle but your bow gets a bit shorter or longer as the week goes on…or the shape would change slightly…taking care of my nails used to drive me crazy!!

So nope I don’t think you’re crazy for cutting off your nails, Peggy :-)

I have little doubt that the reason why my fingernails are so strong is all the milk I've consumed over the decades. I also don't have to worry about finger-picks shifting around as my fingers do their job. It doesn't hurt that the tone quality I get from my nails is absolutely superior to that of any finger-pick I've ever employed. And if I haven't mentioned it before, I'll mention it again. I'm an absolute fingerpicking fool. My fingerpicking abilities are miles ahead of any of my other musical abilities...which are, how shall we say, pretty good at best.

Well I probably only get about 15 minutes playing time per week at this point...lol...so in about three years I'll know if I like the fingerpicks, the plastic ones or the metal ones, or if I should grow out the nails again. I will say typing and putting codes in, etc., is much easier without nails. I don't know how people who have long nails for looks manage...lol...really don't. One thing that always amazed me was Dolly Parton with her long nails and playing guitar with all those nails on her left hand too...I could never do that...mine have to be extremely short, to the quick, on my left hand to play any instrument.

Ed/Lonesome, so you are fingerpicking on a steel string guitar? With nails? Whoa! You do have strong nails…

Peggy, yea me too. I always thought I looked a little weird…with short blunt nails on left hand and perfectly filed longish nails on right hand. I always thought that when they did the autopsy on me they’d be like, hmmm…a guitar player!

Lol...what will the undertaker think...lol.

Well I got a few minutes today with the guitar and I'm goin' back to nails. I mean...I spent most of my life with fingerpicks up until around the last decade or so, when I got the presonus up and running...for some reason, I though nails would be less tappy I guess and that I could sit with my mic close and not feel like I'm having to pluck on the strings, but just gently and nimbly pick.

So now, both the plastic ones and the Ernie Ball metal ones are grinding my nerves with their tapping sounds...lol. That's it. Gonna let the index and middle fingernails grow back to guitar size.

Pick noise is definitely a thing that can be a distraction. It's what stands out to me in most banjo playing. Squeaky.

Fun fact: Bob Black, Iowa banjo player who played with Bill Monroe in the mid 70s, is the cleanest banjo player I've ever heard. No pick noise. None. It is initially eerie but in reality it's awesome.

I guess my nails are comin' back...but I meant to say earlier, for people who break their nails or have nails that break easily...Dwight Diller, the claw hammer guy, had fragile nails and always kept a tube of super glue to repair his nails on the spot. I haven't tried it because I don't seem to ever do anything to my nails...they bend more than break...but I've always kept in mind that a cheap and probably less toxic than acrylic nails way to keeps playin' nails in good strong shape might just be a little dab of super glue.

I been on a trip and away from my busy-box. But I'm back!

Dear 'ol Dixie or thereabouts

cool pickin' right there, Steve!

Meant to contribute to this thread but it got away from me. Too busy casting spells!
Anyway, when I was first playing guitar I used a thumbpick and two metal fingerpicks (National), partly because that's what everyone else did, and also because that's what Earl Scruggs used, I imagine because that's how he played banjo, which I did too.
Nowadays I still use a thumbpick, but no fingerpicks, and I keep my nails short on both hands. I think I have better feel and control that way. I've always mostly used a flatpick though, and don't play that much now anyway - if I played more my fingers might not hold up.
Here's a short demo video with some thumbpicking as well as other stuff - you might see something you like. I'm probably the least accomplished player in that bunch.
dropbox.com/scl/fi/951fkqyuv2t...q40c&dl=0

Looks like a pretty good buncha pickers there, Doug.

Well I almost bought another guitar today...lol...which I don't need. No room for it here in the house, and I already can't play the one I just bought a few weeks ago or any of the other instruments I have sitting gathering dust. I wasn't even at a music store or anywhere near one...just flatout GAS attack...(guitar acquisition syndrome, for those who might think otherwise). I was home and got the sudden attack that I needed a new guitar, today...right now. Fortunately it was at a time when the traffic around here is horrible...so I didn't feel like fighting with it, and then the GAS wore away and I came back to my senses, realizing I'm in no position to need or buy a guitar.

I really think it's the lack of human contact...the depressed state and hopelessness, isolation, etc. I mean, guitars have been my friends throughout so many times in my life. But I have a new friend...Taylor Mini...just no time to get together with that friend. So...back to my senses...somebody stop me from going into music stores ever again. Around here, 'bout all you can get in a music store is a guitar...they don't see good other instruments...mainly electric guitars, but a few acoustic too, which is what I would grab up like an idiot if I got around one.

I used to buy plastic fingerpicks that worked out really well for my playing at Stephens' Music Store in Stearns, Ky. Now there ain't nothin' in Stearns anymore. And since mine got pretty worn out, I have looked up and down the highways and all over the net and that type pick cannot be found anywhere...I've looked for 30 years or so. I did use the metal ones, Ernie Ball thin metal that you can twist around to land just how you need them to play...but I got sick of them. Just too noisy and slick and you have to put them on tight or they will loosen up some as you play. So, it's just thumb pick and nails...I tried without them for a while but, well life chores are easier without two nails in the way...typing, especially...lol...but I think I'm hooked on a thin thumb pick and nails. Now I don't know where to find that type thumb pick...they sure aren't around here that I've seen. I still have two good ones left. So maybe I'm ok since I never play anyway...lol.

I had a thumb pick that was basically a flatpick with a loop to go onto the thumb...I never knew how to use that doggone thing and don't remember when or where I got that...anyway, my heavy metal grandson took it, likes it, and now he says he can't find that type anywhere around...lol...must be some idea of the past or something. Maybe they are online somewhere, not sure if he's just checked locally or where.

quote:

---

Originally posted by NCnotes

Ed/Lonesome, so you are fingerpicking on a steel string guitar? With nails? Whoa! You do have strong nails…

Peggy, yea me too. I always thought I looked a little weird…with short blunt nails on left hand and perfectly filed longish nails on right hand. I always thought that when they did the autopsy on me they’d be like, hmmm…a guitar player!

---

I reiterate...it's got to be my relentless life-long milk jones.  It doesn't hurt that my mother (as vain and fastidious a person who ever lived) sported the best set of nails in town. I continue to thank her everyday. Anyway I've been a relentless finger-picker ever since my high school girlfriend showed me how to double-thumb. 

Double thumb on banjo, you mean?

Used to try to play Mississippi John Hurt Style, alternating bass. i remember that nails didn't really come into it. More like miniature slap bass and playing around a chord shape. (but i used thumb and 3RH fingers nothing touching the guitar top...Maybe the inside of my wrist sometimes to damp), i loved it.

Then i just played Bass strum swing fingerstyle, (a bit like frailing banjo) for Gypsy jazz rhythm stuff , and nails still didn't come into it, just grab a hold on the strings you want to play and play em. Never could play with a pick....

Ever picked your bow up after using a guitar pick? ( i would guess yo have).... It feels like a log to me.

I started out with plastic finger picks and just got to know the guitar with them. So...nails are a recent thing for me...I only started playing with nails instead of picks since I quit the amateur BG band and started just playing on my presonus...just me quietly with my headphones on nestled into the mic...it's great for quiet picking with the nails. The fingerpicks always helped me project more...I do like getting to pick easier with the nails, but I still do need the thumb pick. But the kind I have have a skinnier point to pick with...I've had them for two or three decades now so, since I don't know what kind they are called or where to get more, I might have a thumb pick problem if they get too worn down. They're ok for now...but wearing out some.

Peggy, I had one of those flatpick/thumbloop things too - may still have it. It seemed like a good idea, but I like to hold my pick a certain way, and you couldn't do that with the loop around your thumb, and it was too flimsy for real thumbpicking.

PS - Looks like they're still available, in various gauges: jimdunlop.com/herco-heavy-thumbpicks/
Guitar Center and Sweetwater both carry them.

Doug,
Is that loop/flat pick, can you up-pick as well as down pick? Theoretically?

Theoretically, yes, but as I said, it didn't work very well for me, and it was a long time ago. I had to use my first finger on the opposite side of the pick, much like a regular flatpick, but that didn't provide the geometry I wanted. Maybe if the thumb loop was really tight it might work better, but it tended to spin around on your thumb. Give it a try if you're curious - they're not very expensive. The one I had was tortoise colored, and I saw pictures of the Herco like that, but not on their site. There are other designs too, from Fred Kelly (?) and Propik, so somebody must be using them.
PS - Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but back in my active playing days I used real tortoise shell flatpicks. They have a crisp "snap" that you just don't get with plastic. In those days you could stll find them, and as we travelled, if there was time I'd check in local music stores to see if they had any. Nowadays I just use triangular Fender heavies, tortoise color or white.

Steve, here's a video by someone who apparently sells his own version of this, and maybe has overcome some of the problems: youtu.be/CZt88tmasgQ?feature=shared